2011-06-27

I made it to the Eudora Welty exhibition at the Pass Christian Historical Society this weekend. It was my first time there and it's a really nice facility, although a bit small for the exhibit. The staff were extremely friendly and helpful. The prints are great, and some the photographs themselves are truly good, although I've never thought of Eudora Welty as being in quite the same league as some of the very best WPA photographers like Dorothea Lange or Walker Evans. Of course neither Lange nor Evans won a Pulitzer Prize. Besides, who am I to argue with John Szarkowski, often quoted as saying that Eudora Welty's photographs "show us only the rarest and most evanescent truths."

It's a free show that runs till the end of July, and I highly recommend it.

It's actually three exhibits combined into one show. I didn't realize until I was there, but the photography exhibit is a show that was put together in 1995 by the Mississippi Department of Archives & History entitled Eudora Welty: Other Places. When I saw the catalog, I realized I had a personal connection to the show; a good friend of mine worked in the darkroom when the new prints were made for this show in 1995, and when they were done he made a couple of prints of one of my negatives with some of the left over materials. It was a portrait originally commissioned by Coast Magazine, and I still have a framed copy at home.

Eventually, I contacted Ricoh and they told me to contact their service facility's parts department - CRIS Camera. They first sent a ring for a GRD3, but I contacted them again and they were very nice and sent the correct ring. After it was all said and done, it cost me $22.00 including shipping. Nice people to do business with.